


Save Me the Waltz

by sunflowerfaun



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Introspection, M/M, Sharing a Room
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-04 12:53:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15841701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunflowerfaun/pseuds/sunflowerfaun
Summary: Shorter tries to shoulder his burden.





	Save Me the Waltz

Two minutes.

In just two minutes, everything falls apart.

Shorter feels like he should have seen it coming - the Chinese mafia had a tendency to change course, and the Lee family were as compromising as they trustworthy. Alliances shift and change; he’s not the only one who has to pay for it.

Again, he tries to think of different ways he could approach his situation - but how can he defy the Lee clan? With Nadia still in New York, there was no way for him to protect her.

There’s no choice but to give someone up. 

The thought leaves a bitter taste in his mouth.

“Excuse me,” a voice floats through the kitchen, and Shorter freezes up.

“Ah, Yau-Si,” Ibe spoke up. Shorter watches, breath sucked hard into his lungs as Yau-Si smiles oh-so sweetly at the man. “We will be taking our leave soon. We didn’t mean to impose on you like this.”

“Oh, no,” Yut-lung replies, pleasantly. “I’m grateful for what you’ve done for me. It’s the least I can do.” 

Yut-Lung sighs as he sits himself down with Max and Ibe - he makes a point of looking as innocent as possible, something that can no longer go over Shorter’s head as he keeps an eye on his every move. He smiles again, eyes crinkling with the action, looking as warm and kind as he possibly can.

It coils around his stomach, like a snake constricting the air out of its victim.

The man is an empty shell. Devoid of feeling; emotions completely wiped from his personality. He can never understand something like love or friendship, because he has no idea that it existed.

Eiji is different.

He didn’t have to look hard to tell - Eiji feels things much stronger than anyone else he knew. It was as if he had sucked it all out of Yut-Lung somehow, leaving the other cold and vacant.

Shorter ponders the idea of Yut-Lung wanting to crush it all out of Eiji. 

Shorter’s fingers curl into each other, hands clasped under the table. The chattering in the kitchen is just a faint noise in the background of his thoughts - of Yut-Lung eating away at his mind, leaving him with only anxiety and doubt.

He feels the snakes eyes land on him. He clenches his teeth together painfully.

He can’t stand another second of it. Unraveling his fingers from one another, he pushes out of his seat, and nods toward Max and Ibe. “I’m going to sleep.”

Max looks from his paper to him, surprise coloring his face. “You are? It's still early.”

“I'm tired, old man,” Shorter replies, taking a page out of Ash’s book in order to get him off of his back. Despite looking so, Max isn't stupid. He’s slow at times, but when he’s in the right mood, he can tell how people were truly feeling in just a glance.

Thankfully, it’s not one of those times. Max’s face scrunches up as if he'd bitten into something sour; Ibe looked to Shorter with what looked like betrayal. 

He can’t even muster the energy to laugh.

He does, however, sneak a glance in Yut-Lung’s direction - the guy has the gall to look at him with something akin to pity in his eyes, and it stirs at the rage that is just boiling beneath the surface, begging to overflow, to snake his body forward and splatter his blood on his knife.

He swallows it all down and turns away, Max’s complaints nothing but a whisper against the noise in his mind.

The bedroom that he’s been sharing with Ash and Eiji is just around the corner. Reaching it quickly, he shuts the door quietly behind him.

It’s small, but big enough to house the three of them, despite there being only one bed. Ash was quick to suggest that he himself sleep on the floor, but Shorter had taken the space before he could, and the argument over it had only lasted a few minutes before Eiji had come in.

The memory - despite it happening not even a day ago - makes him smile. Eiji had some sort of magic power over Ash already. He could only imagine what it’d be like in just a few months.

I want you to kidnap that Japanese boy for me.

Shorter’s back hits the wall.

“Fuck,” he breathes out, but no one answers.

 

 

He’s stirred from his pseudo-slumber when the door creaks open and light spills in.

Eiji tries his best to be quiet - when Shorter blinks his eyes open, he can see the tense outline of his body as he slides in, shutting the door behind him quickly.

“S’okay,” he says, and Eiji jumps a little bit before turning to Shorter. “Where’s Ash?”

He can’t really tell once the room is as dark as it is, but he thinks he sees Eiji’s face fall. Or, he can at least imagine it doing so when he answers.

“He’s still at the computer. It doesn’t seem like he’s going to take a break.”

Shorter sighs, and then groans as he pushes himself up into a sitting position. “Are you okay?”

Eiji shuffles about awkwardly. His silence is enough to tell Shorter that something’s on his mind, but he isn’t quite sure if he’s up to talking about it. Instead, the Japanese boy sits himself on the edge of the bed, and laughs through his breathe.

“Ash told me to go back home,” he says, and something inside Shorter snaps. “Back to Japan.”

“Then you should,” Shorter replies, before he even has a chance to process.

Eiji exhales. “I know I should.”

But I don’t want to.

He doesn’t have to voice them for Shorter to already hear them.

But it doesn’t matter. Even if he were to try to go back to Japan, Yut-Lung would just -

Shorter scowls. It’s not the time to be thinking about that. He looks back to Eiji, who gazes at him with worry etched onto his face. 

“Shorter?” He asks, and it’s enough to wipe the rotten expression from his face. Eiji is already scooting closer to him. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” he responds, and it hurts, because he hates lying to him, and he hates what he’ll have to soon do to him. If it were anyone else, Shorter would’ve been able to carry out the task, no matter how dirty it was - but he can’t do it to the people he traveled so far with, and he especially can’t do it to Eiji, who’s still innocent and a bit naive on the dealings of the mafia.

He’s tired of swallowing it down, but it’s the only thing he can do.

“I’m fine.” He shakes his head. “But I know you aren’t, Eiji. You don’t have to try and act tough for me.”

Eiji’s voice is softer when he replies. “I know. Sorry.”

“You don’t have to say sorry.” It’s cute how Eiji apologizes for small things - he’s heard Ash say it has something to do with him being Japanese, but Eiji’s the only person he’s met who’s done it. “When are you going back?”

“As soon as we are done in California, Ibe-san and I will go to the airport.”

Shorter grunts, and they both fall into silence. 

By the time that they are done here, Yut-Lung will send him to collect his prize. He doesn’t know how to comfort Eiji with this situation, not when he knows that the thing he’s agonizing over is something that won’t even end up happening.

Especially when something worse may happen to him.

“Shorter,” Eiji starts. His face contorts into a frown, and then a grimace as he opens his mouth. “Um... do you think...”

Shorter almost cracks a smile. “Don’t tell me you’re scared of the dark, Eiji.”

Eiji gasps, scandalized. “No! I am not scared.” 

“What, then?”

Eiji groans, and then pouts. “It’s weird sleeping on the bed by myself,” he murmurs, almost too quiet for him to hear.

Shorter coughs - he supposes that Eiji had gotten used to sharing his bed with Ash, or with all three of them. He’s also become increasingly aware of the different relationship him and Ash seem to be sharing - he probably feels even more lonely now that Ash has told him to leave while deciding not to come to bed.

“Okay,” Shorter starts. He’s not really sure how to respond. “The bed’s big enough for two, yeah?” He gets up, and catches the smile that Eiji flashes at him.  
Eiji turns his back to him quickly, and scoots across the bed to the space that he’s been occupying. The blankets are all ruffled, and Shorter supposes that it must be due to Ash’s behavior while knocked out. 

When he comes up to the other side of the bed, he can easily tell that that’s the case. Ash’s pillows are in complete disarray, the sheet practically sliding off from their snug places on the mattress. With a sigh, he fixes it the best he can before he settles himself next to Eiji.

“Thank you,” Eiji tells him. He’s facing Shorter, eyes already half-closed. 

Shorter throat closes.

“Yeah.”

**Author's Note:**

> ugh i wanted to write something for them a few weeks ago but i kept getting lazy. also the orig fic was gonna be E LOL maybe ill write a continuation for it later
> 
> good luck on episode 9 my friends : )


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